MAURITIAN DREAMS

 

Following up on the Mauritius railings post with a bit of Revit work.

Will we ever get the updated railings tool that we were promised half a lifetime ago, I wonder?

There's a bit of cheating going on to get some of these to work. At least they are not as responsive to parametric control as I would have hoped. I ended up creating a new railing type just to vary the spacing of the posts, in one case.

All the same it was an enjoyable exercise, and I hope to do a few more.

 

It's not really a painting yet. Just occupying space on the wall until a suitable subject comes to mind.

If the grid of subdued colours shows through, maybe I will incorporate it into the final composition. For the moment, it's better than staring at a bare white rectangle.

Sooner or later the penny will drop, a notion of what to paint next. An industrial landscape perhaps.

 

 

About 35 years ago, (half a lifetime) I was a curriculum developer in Zimbabwe. My subject area was building,which included a drawing component.

We were very keen to develop low cost teaching aids. One of my favourites was a set of boxy shapes, (home made with glue, tape, matchboxes & paint.)

There were worksheets. Exercises, teaching basic 3d projections: orthographic and isometric. "draw the missing view" etc Recently I reproduced the worksheet concept using Revit.

I have a gas stove. 2 or 3 matches per day. So it's taken me a year or so to build up the raw material for this recreation. The colour is a new idea. The original blocks were white.

 

I recently shared snaps of buildings by Frank Lincoln, including a bank in KweKwe, Zimbabwe.

Here are some more images from that era (of my life) to round out the picture of this small town as it was about 20 years ago.

The post office is quite typical of government buildings from between the two world wars: a kind of Mediterranean classical look.

Modern church and traditional mosque tell their stories well enough. Each a landmark in its own way.

That leaves the old shop. The flavour of a bygone age is part of what drew me closer to Zimbabwe and kept me there so long. Looking at this image more carefully, for the fist time I notice the reticulated panels on the parapet. Someone with a sense of pride in the plastering trade flexing their muscles, probably before I was born.

Fascinating.

 

 

 

Public Holiday today so I polled my subconscious for a topic.

It was a no brainer. Integrating my recent work on doors and railings to do a quick BIM sketch of a typical "shop house" in the old quarter of downtown Port Louis.

This is loosely based on the photo, but not being afraid to take a few liberties. Call it an archetype.

Wouldn't it be fun to create a little street with three different archetypes distilled from those photos I took 20 years ago?

 

Lunch time report...

Missing shutters, which are de riguer in Mauritius. Also the materials need some work.

But I thought it was worth spending a few minutes in Enscape3d and photoshop. Its a sketch remember... would be a mistake to go for photoreal in this context.

Having fun though. Not bad for a relaxed morning messaround (Ray Charles reference 🙄)